Natural disasters stay clear in your mind for a lifetime, think Darwin's Cyclone Tracy in 1974, the Newcastle earthquake in 1989 or Victoria's Black Friday bushfires in 2009.

Christchurch in NZ suffered a horrendous 6.2 magnitude earthquake on 22 February 2011 that killed 185 people and injured more than 1,500 people. The centre of the quake was only 6.7km away from Christchurch so the devastation ripped through the heart of New Zealand's second-largest city on the South Island.

The rescue, recovery and rebuild of Christchurch was long and deep, it appears to have quite a few similarities to Lismore. Thousands of people were displaced, many suburbs, not just homes, were coded a 'red zone' which meant they were condemned, the CBD was decimated with buildings taking years to be assessed let alone rebuilt and reopened.

Brenden Winder was part of the Christchurch Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA), Brenden's role was Group Manager of Residential Red Zone Operations so was an integral part of the recovery process. He does response and recovery for a living so Brenden knows a thing or two about this process we have really only just begun.

Brenden was happy to talk to the Lismore App about his experiences and how they may connect to the devastating 14.4 metre February 28 flood that became the Lismore natural disaster.

HOUSING

I mentioned that people are frustrated with the pace of building medium-term accommodation (dongar villages) after getting those that needed it, into emergency accommodation with another possible 4 weeks before anything is constructed.

"That is a long time but then putting people into temporary accommodation is hardly ever temporary and if you do that wrong you re-traumatise them. So, I get the desire to ship people once into the next stage of whatever that accommodation is and make it worthwhile because they are already feeling pretty traumatised by this event and extra sensitive."

"Life is unfair, and it really is in these circumstances, when maybe their neighbours are not in the same circumstance so to put them in some half-arsed set-up makes it even worse. I can kind of sympathise with the bureaucrats trying to get the stuff right because you don't want to compound the misery."

How quickly did this happen in Christchurch?

"Reasonably quickly, I don't recall exactly but I imagine our timeframe was pretty similar. We've still got requirements of the building act like fire safety regulations, sanitation and those sorts of things. There was some immediate stuff set up but the mid-range temporary accommodation does take a wee bit longer because it has to get consented and plumbed. You still have to follow a process, you can speed it up but you still have to follow it and given that loads of contractors and engineers and designers and all the people that have special skills are probably involved in the response."

"It puts a big strain on your infrastructure and that includes special expertise in building, construction, design and delivery like laying concrete, putting in pipes and poles, providing streets and those sorts of things that need to be thought about. Those people are probably already flat-tack responding to the situation and many of them will be victims as well. Putting them under pressure to get it done quickly sometimes needs to be thought about."

How quickly was CERA set up?

"In the February quakes we were still responding to the September earthquake in 2010 so there was a recovery project underway already operating when the February quake hit, so we had a bit of a handle on recovery at that point but it became pretty clear that the recovery set up was going to be insufficient on the scale that was required. Earthquakes also have aftershocks which is slightly different to your situation, they tend to have a longer tail, after shocks are a different beast."

"CERA got up on April 18th with about 50 odd staff and had a real operational focus early on as well. That's a little bit different for a recovery agency but in order to enable recovery you have to get the operational stuff underway and in some cases out of the way. I had an operational role with CERA and that role continued for another 6 or 7 more years. Actually responding to the earthquake 6 or 7 years later."

"CERA terminated before that but it handed over to other agencies to carry on the work. One of my roles was managing the CBD red zone which was downtown Christchurch. We put a fence around it, then the next 857 days we managed a lot of the activity around it like high-risk demolitions. Beyond that, there was a whole lot of housing which would be similar to what you guys are doing there. In the residential areas, there was a whole heap of demolitions that had to take place and that carried on until the end of last year (2021) when the last demolition was completed. So, a decade later."

"You can't do everything at once, if you do you are taking out the entire contracting market and that means other people can't do their houses. The bureaucracy needs to understand the influence on the contracting market and I think we did a good job of that."

Insurance

"There will be massive insurance issues. insurance isn't set up to deal, it certainly wasn't in New Zealand ten years ago, with the volume of work. Then the complexity is also a challenge too when they have to do tens or hundreds or thousands all at the same time. Every word of every insurance policy will be tested mostly in court and that's not a quick process either. I hate to put a negative taint on it but if you've got thousands of properties affected I think you can expect to be in recovery mode for a decade or more."

The difference in the Christchurch market was that pre-2011 they didn't know they were on a fault line. Interestingly, in New Zealand, all residents are covered by the Earthquake Commission. This is similar to the Federal Government Re-Insurance Fund that is being discussed now.

"So, we've got quite a unique set-up here. After World War II, they allowed for war damage and earthquake damage and while a lot of people had challenges with it, it largely did its job because most people got something and that allowed them to get the city up and running using that MCC money."

"I don't know the Australian Flood Insurance set-up but I guarantee there will be people with insurance that doesn't cover what they thought it might or to the value they thought it would and it won't happen at the speed they hoped it might. Their view of what the insurance covers and the insurance company that is about to pay out hundreds of millions of dollars will be tested in court and that is a horrible, adversarial, contentious long-winded process and that will be the same everywhere in the world I reckon."

"There is some pain to come."

What sort of people made-up CERA?

It was a government agency that had the CEO of our electricity provider Orion as its leader. He did a great job of responding to the earthquake, he communicated well, had a brilliant network of people fixing it. It was a great success story in getting the power back on.

There are some interesting dynamics around leadership in a recovery. We discovered, and I don't mean this as a slight on anyone, that people who are good at recovery and people who are good at response aren't necessarily the same people. There is a different sort of mindset involved, different challenges and different levels of complexity and differences in decision making and governance too. All that needs to be thought about."

"If someone has done a good job in response, that's fantastic, but that doesn't automatically translate to being a really capable recovery manager. There are different skill sets and thought needs to be put into what those skill sets are, what networks they've got and leadership is so important in recovery because it becomes all-consuming."

"While everyone in your city will know the name of the recovery manager, they wouldn't normally know the name of the local bureaucrat but the recovery manager will be a real central hub and focus for the people in your town and that person needs to be really resilient and really composed."

"Right at the top of the list is the ability to communicate with a wide range of audiences quickly and effectively. From the people whose houses have been affected to communities of interest, to geographical communities, to local leadership but also the regional support network and national support network. There will also be international people coming to support you as well so you need to be able to communicate on all levels. How did the Rudyard Kipling poem go "If you can walk with kings but keep the common touch", the recovery manager really needs to be able to do both because some days he will be kicking dirt around saying this is awful and the following day he will have the Prime Minister in his office talking about multi-million dollar deals. That person has to walk in both sets of shoes."

"I don't know the final number but there were a couple of hundred people on CERA. It fluctuated because we had people coming and going on various projects and then we turned it into a central city development unit to the side of CERA but under the same regime. It was probably at its most effective when it was smaller."

"Some people would argue it got too big and you could certainly make a case for that but getting the scope right, making sure people understand what recovery is going to be delivered by this agency that is already there, making sure that you look after the local agencies that are going to be there long after the recovery agency has stood down. There needs to be real thought put into supplementing the current arrangements but not overwhelming them and not stepping into their shoes and not disenfranchising them."

"They need to be empowered, supported and then ramped up and supported over time and then demobilised in a coherent and organised manner when the time comes as well. Looking after the people that are going to be there long term is critical."

"A recovery agency shouldn't come in do the seagull act, 'flap, shit and then leave'. It needs to come in and sustain the local effort and support it."

How long was CERA around?

"The legislation was set up for 5-years so 2011 to 2016. I think there was some residual stuff going on slightly longer than that.

One tip for Lismore as we step through our crisis?

Three things:

1. Take a deep breath, this is going to go longer and cost more money than you think.
2. What you end up with will be better than what you have now and you will look back on some of it with real pride.
3. I know there are people that are upset for what has happened to their house, I get that, they will need to be supported. For the people that will be going into the recovery agency it will be complex, time-consuming and heartbreaking but it is important work and it needs to get done and when you get it done it will be rewarding to look back on and really good learning.